Bart Stupak has finally gotten (or reacquired) a spine!
If the reporting from Politico is right, he’s finally stood up to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama!
He’s un-caved!
A little too late.
He’s decided, you see, not to run for re-election.
Politico reports:
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the leader of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection, a Democratic official said. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans.
President Barack Obama called Stupak on Wednesday and asked him not to retire. Stupak, 58, also resisted entreaties from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the Wolverine State delegation.
Now get this:
Friends said Stupak was not leaving because of the health fight but because of the exertion that would be required to hold his sprawling Upper Peninsula District.
Uh . . . right.
This guy is waaaay incumbent. He’s been in the House for 18 years (9 terms) and has never won with less than 57% of the vote—just three percent from landslide territory.
So tell us how this year it is different and it’s become much more difficult—but not because of the health care fight.
This year was shaping up to be a different story, with Stupak becoming a leading target on both his left and right flanks. Abortion rights supporters were rallying behind Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall after Stupak insisted on pro-life language being inserted in the health care legislation.
Er . . . so I guess he’s facing a fierce challenge from the other side—the right—that isn’t due to the health care fight. Right?
And Republicans have rallied around surgeon Dan Benishek, a Tea Party favorite, who received very little attention until Stupak voted for the health care legislation even without receiving anti-abortion language in the bill itself. Benishek is expected to raise over $100,000 this quarter, according to GOP sources, a large amount for a first-time candidate who had virtually no campaign infrastructure before Stupak received national attention over his health care positioning.
Urm. . . . okay! So Bart “Pro-Lifers like the Catholic bishops are hypocrites” Stupak plans to leave, but it’s not because of his EPIC FAIL in the healthcare fight.
Not because of that at all.
So now that we have that settled, I just have one question.
What’s your goodbye message to Mr. Stupak?
{ 22 comments }
Goodbye Stupak!
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
+J.M.J+
Why did everyone think that Stupak would actually protect us from this bill? I don’t think he ever opposed universal health care per se, he just didn’t want it to cover abortion. So by voting for the bill in the end (once he believed that abortion funding would not be part of it) Stupak wasn’t really going back on his principles, or whatever. He thought he had done his job by getting abortion excluded and now he could help provide health care for all. That could also be why he was taken aback by the negative reaction to his vote.
Maybe it was a bad idea to put so much hope in a man who never really intended to “kill the bill” in the first place.
The Lord avenges the blood of the innocent.
Coincidentally, that is word for word what I said in the ear of NJ’s then-governor Jim McGreevey when I found myself sitting directly behind him at a Good Friday service at our archdiocese’s cathedral.
After the service, he turned around to shake my hand, and when I leaned forward he turned his ear toward me, and I said … those words. I wanted him to know that he couldn’t walk into a Catholic cathedral and expect to find the people with him on abortion.
He looked at me steadily and replied, completely noncommittally, “Thank you.”
FWIW, the incident somehow made it to the ears of our archbishop (not, I’m sure, through McGreevey; it was probably someone I told, like my pastor), who had presided at that liturgy — and the archbishop personally thanked me for speaking up.
Rep. Stupak, do you think you can afford to retire on 30 pieces of silver?
Go, Steven! What guts!
Ditto. I love hearing that. Inaction and silence can be reinforcement for those policies and stances. Full plaudits Steven.
Schlafen zie gut? Herr Stupak?
Mr. Stupak,
It’s not who you are, but what you do, that defines you.
Oh, and you either die a hero, or live long enough to really become the villain.
(Is it bad that I can only think of movies quotes?)
SDG, I got that from you I think. I think you posted that story before. It was great!
David B.,
You could at least try to expand your movie quotes repertoire beyond Batman.
O.K.,
Et tu, Barte?
How ’bout this:
Brave Bart Stupak ran away
Bravely ran away, away
When voters raised their righteous heads
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Brave, brave, brave Bart Stupak
Enjoy Wales!
“Sir? I hope you realize you have damaged the idea of a pro-life democrats for about a generation, minimum. Hope your liver doesn’t quit on you.”
Dear Neville Chamberlain,
So when are you announcing your cushy job in the Obama Administration?
With the healthcare reform debacle and yet another Supreme Court justice about to be replaced by an Obama appointee, I have nothing to say to Rep. Stupak. My comments are reserved for the 51+% of Catholics who voted for Obama.
If you voted for Obama, hoping he would change the war in Iraq and Afghanistan – he hasn’t.
If you voted for Obama, hoping he would change the direction of the economy – he hasn’t.
If you voted for Obama, hoping he would change healthcare so it becomes free – he hasn’t.
If you voted for Obama, hoping he would change “politics as usual” – he hasn’t.
If you voted for Obama, hoping he would change the world for the better – he hasn’t.
But if you voted for Obama, hoping he would change how abortions are funded in this country – he has!
I hope you pro-Obama Catholics can reconcile “all the good” Pbama has done against the additional 20 years that have been tacked on to the lifespan of Roe v. Wade (and the extra 25 million dead babies). I hope these changes were worth it to you.
Pbama = Obama (typo)
May the screen door hit ya, where the good Lord split ya, HARD
I think we lost the healthcare debate because it became a one-issue type thing in the media. Why did people even want the Stupak Amendment anyway? We should have been opposing the whole thing. If we don’t stick up for a culture of life as a whole… then we will always be pinned down by the competition and lose the argument as they portray us as one-issue voters. Come on people… let’s promote a culture of life and not compromise. Otherwise, it’s kind of like saying that I won’t eat any more Big Macs but I’m still going to eat chicken nuggets. No… we have to say no to all of it…
Who is in charge of the 30 pieces of Silver?
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